The resemblance caused me to wonder if Van Gogh had ever seen a time-lapse photo of the stars and if it had influenced him to paint the picture. My interest stirred, I searched on the internet and learned that the first camera was invented in 1841 and Van Gogh had painted Starry Night in France in 1889. So it is possible.

These pictures brought up a memory of the first time I saw a time-lapse photograph of the stars. I was probably elementary school age. My Dad went out with the camera and set it up to photo the stars. When he showed me the picture, I thought it looked like it was raining light. I couldn’t believe those were stars, or that the stars could move so quickly and dramatically.